Expanded-metal fabric and method of making the same



E. T. REDDING.

EXPANDED METAL-FABR|C AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 28, 1919.

1,370,862. Patented Mar. 1, 1921.

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

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E. T. REDDING.

EXPANDED METAL FABRIC AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 28, 1919.

1,370,362, Patehted Mar. 1, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

FIG .4. PIC-3.5. FIG.6.

MM By ATTORNEYS.

EDWARD T. BEDDING, OF SWISSVALE, IPENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGN DATED EXPANDEDMETAL COMPANY, .OF BRADDOCK, PENN 'panded metal, such UNITED STATESPATENT; OFFICE.

RATION or PENNSYLVANIA.

EXPANDED-METAL FABRIC To all whom it may concern:

a citizen of the United States, residing at Swis svale in the county ofAllegheny and State of l tain new and useful Improvements inExpanded-Metal Fabrics and Methods of M aking the Same, ofwhich thefollowing is a specification.

My invention relates to expanded metal fabric and to a method of makingexpanded metal fabric, as a result of which I am enabled torproduce anew form of such fabric, which not-only has superior physical propertiesbut also is of such character as to render it suitable for uses forwhich the known types of expanded metal cannot be satisfac torilyemployed, as will further appear.

The primary object of my invention is to provide an improved method oftreating exas produced by the Golding method, shown and described in theGolding Patent #527,424 of ()ctober 9, 1894, whereby I am enabled toproduce my new product. Golding fabric is made of heavy stock, thestrands of which are ii formed by a shearing operation incontradistinction to deployed be formed by slitting a blank andstretchit laterally.

I accomplish the .foregoing by means of a method which I haveillustrated in preferred form in the accompanying drawings the oldtermediate stage of the process of manufacwherein- Figure 1 is aperspective view of a piece of ex anded metal, such as produced by thesaid olding method; Fig. 2 is a plan view of an improved machineutilized in carrying out my process, and shown and described in myco-pending' application, Serial N 0. 253,149 filed September 9, 1918, ofwhich this application is a division; Fig. 3- is a perspective view of apiece of my new form of metal fabric; Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are enlargedperspectives of similar portions of product, the new product in aninture', and the new product in final form;

F1 7 is a section taken on the line VII VI I of Fig. 2; Fig. 8 is asectional View diagrammatically illustrating the treatment given thefabric in the machine; and Figs.

9, 10 and 11 are fragmentary sectional views Specification of LettersPatent.

Original application filed September 9, 1918, Serial No. 253,149.Divided ruary 28, 1919. Serial No. 279,783.

ennsylvania, have invented oer-- fabric which can longitudinalreciprocatory 1n.

OR TO THE CONSOLI- SYLVANIA, A. CORPO- Patented Mar. 1, 1921. and thisapplication filed Febs eet is therefore mately twice the width of thestrands, and furthermore the stresses from bridge to bridge will bedistributed in planes diagonally disposed with reference to the generalplane of the sheet. In addition the sheet 1s very rigid. For thesereasons this type of fabric although much superior to deployed metalexpanded fabric, is unsuitable for certain purposes, particularly foruse in concrete tiles and the like. Because of the peculiar dispositionof the parts the bond between the concrete or other cementitiousmaterial, and this t pe of expanded metal is not very secure. 11carrying out in improved method, in its preferred form, 1 propose toturn over the strands 6 and the connecting bridge portions 7 into theoriginal plane of the sheet stock from which the fabric is produced. Theresultant product, as shown in Fig. 3, has its strands 8 and the bridgeportions 9 extending in the same horizontal plane so that the new fabricis in the form of a fiat sheet.

In accomplishin this I take a sheet of expanded metal suc as shown inFig. 1, and flatten it between superposed rolls 10-10 and 11l1' as amedium of pressure application, the product being supported during tspassage through the rolls upon a travelmg plate 12, carried in the frame13 for movement there- The rolls are adapted to rotate as a unit, andlongitudinal movement is imparted to the plate 12 by means of a rack 14,on the bottom of the plate and the pinion 15, rotating with the shaft ofthe roll 10'. The rolls 10 and 10 are geared together as are rolls 11and 11' by the upper gears 16 and 17 and the lower ears 16 and 17', theformer being meshe with a driving pinion 18 having a driving shaft 19operated from an suitable source of power, andjprovideg with suitablereversing mechanism adapted to v of details of the machine drawn on anen Be it known that I, EDWARD T. BEDDING, l

intermittently reverse such rotation. This rotation is translated into areciprocatory movement of the plate toward and'from the table 20 uponwhich the rigid product is designed to be initially placed.ltoll'supports 22 are provided at spaced intervals to provide adequateterminal support for the plate 12 in its extreme positions.

The operation is as follows:

Assuming that the plate 12 is retracted to the opposite extreme positionfrom that illustrated in Figs. 2 and 7 a section of the fabric A isplaced upon the table '20 with the longer axes of the diamond openingsat right angles to the pass of the rolls, t. 6., parallel to thelongitudinalaxis of the machine, the forward marginal edge portion ofthe section being in close proximity to the front rolls. When the rollsare rotated the plate 12 moves to the right and carries the fabric withit between the rolls and the fabtie is subjected to a pressing actionwhich.

serves to turn over all of the strands and the bridges in the samedirection, so that the bridges will tend to straighten out withoutcrimping or crushing or materially elongating the piece, the degree offlattening being determined by the relative roll adjustment. Some slightelongation may take place, this gain in length being due, however, notto any contraction in the width of the fabric, but to a possibleelongation of the metal due to the rolling or to the cumulative resultof a fractional gain at each bridge obtained in the'process offlattening. l prefer to provide the pass with a vertical dimension whichsubstantially equals the sum of the thickness of the plate member 12 andhalf the overall height of the piece being treated less a fractionalpart of the same.

The piece after passing "through the front rolls has a tendency tospiral, z. e., it begins to roll up starting at one. corner and in orderto break this up I provide suitable means rearwardly of said rolls, suchas members 23v and 24,-the' former being inclined with reference to thepass ofthe rolls and the latter being arcuate in cross-section andplaced just above the member 23 whereby to provide a curved or ofi'setpassage 25 through which the piece of material being treated passesbefore it reaches the second or rear pair of rolls. The members 23 and24 are preferably secured to the sides of the frame 13 by means of bolts26; The members 23 and 24 give a reverse'bending movement to the sheettraveling therethrough and thus remove the effects of the bending actionproduced by the rolls 10 and 10.

The distortion given the piece by the members 23 and 24: is of suchcharacter that the sheet after passingthrough the second pair of rolls11 and 11 is practically straight,

and in order to prevent crumbling up or rolling upon itself, -I provideadditional through the sides of the arm ar ner;

means such as the two plates 27 and 28 set apart to form a straighthorizontal passage 29 through which the product passes as it leavesrolls 11 and '11. The lower plate 28 is located so as to just clear theupper face of the plate 12 and has its end 28 secured hr flatten thestrands 6 to the bridges 7 so that the final product will be ofsubstantially the same size as the original section 7, that is to saythe dimensions of the strands and the connecting bridges remain the sameafter treatment as before. i

The new fabric produced by this method takes on new qualities and lendsitself very effectively to employment in concrete roof tiles and similarbuilding slabs, and T have found by actual test that a tile so providedwill stand greater tension stress than a similar tile provided with theold expanded metal product, such as the Golding expanded metal. Tncontra-distinction to the old product the new product is much thinnerand the strainsaredistributed' in the same horizontal plane. Inasmuch asit has been foundthat the reinforcement for tiling of the characterdescribed should be embedded therein on one side of the neutral'axisthereof, in order to secure the most effective results, it will beseen that by the use of my improved product I am enabled to produce a,relatively'much thinner but equally strong tile, which will require amuch less time for seasoning. Furthermore the bond between the materialand the concrete fabric is much. more close.

It will be seen that I provide a substan-' tially uniform pressurethroughout the area of the sheet in contact with the rolling means. I

I claim:

1. The herein described process of treating a sheet of previously formedmetallic stretched strand Golding fabric having strands and bridgesinclined toward the vertical to produce therefrom a flat fabric whichconsists in turning over'the strands and connecting bridges of thefabric substantially into a single horizontal plane'by passing the sheetthrough compression means and then in leveling the sheet after it leavesthe compression means.

2. Theherein described process of treating a sheet of previously formedmetallic stretched strand Golding fabric having strands and bridgesinclined toward the vertical to produce therefrom a fiat fabric whichconsists in subjecting the sheet to a flattening pressure by rollingmeans to turn over the strands and connecting bridges into asubstantially single horizontal plane and then in removing the curlingor bending of the sheet imparted by the rolling means during theflattening to substantially level the sheet.

3. The herein described process of treating a sheet of previously formedmetallic stretched strand Golding fabric having strands and bridgesinclined toward the vertical to produce therefrom a flat fabric whichconsists in subjecting the sheet to a flattening pressure by rollingmeans to turn over the strands and connecting bridges into substantiallythe same single, horizontal plane, in reversely bending the sheet fromits bent condition resulting from the flattening thereof in the rolls,and then in substantially leveling the sheet.

4. The herein described process of treating a sheet of previously formedmetallic stretched strand Golding fabric having strands and bridgesinclined toward the vertical to produce therefrom a flat fabric whichconsists in subjecting the sheet to a flattening pressure to turn overthe strands and connecting bridges of the fabric substantially into asingle, horizontal plane, Without material widening or elongation of thesheet.

. 5. The herein described processof treating a sheet of previouslyformed metallic stretched strand Golding fabric having strands andbridges inclined toward the vertical to produce therefrom a fiat fabricwhich consists in turning over the strands and connecting bridges of thefabric substantially intov a single, horizontal plane by passing thesheet through a revolving compression member and a lineally travelingcompression member.

6. As a new article of manufacture, a sheet of metallic fabricconsisting of a previously formed sheet of Golding fabric pressed toturn over the strands and bridges into a single plane producing a flatsheet, which as compared with the previously formed sheet of Goldingfabric, is not materially widened or elongated.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name.

EDWARD T. BEDDING.

